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See for yourself that Alabama baseball deserved better than that final phantom called third strike

alabama-kennesaw-state-strike-3.jpg

Alabama's baseball season ends on this pitch to Kyle Overstreet, which was called strike three with the tying runs on base in the ninth inning of a 4-2 loss to Kennesaw State in the championship game of the Tallahassee (Fla.) Regional of the NCAA Baseball Tournament on June 2, 2014. (Photo courtesy of CBSsports.com)

You could feel the tension coming through the radio Monday afternoon. Alabama was down to its last strike of the season, losing 4-2 to upstart Kennesaw State in the championship game of the Tallahassee Regional, but the Crimson Tide had the tying runs on base and the reliable Kyle Overstreet at the plate in the top of the ninth inning.

Mitch Gaspard's crew had won three straight elimination games to reach this point, one over host Florida State, so a ninth-inning comeback wasn't at all out of the question.

On a 2-2 count, Kennesaw State closer Justin McCalvin threw an off-speed pitch that floated down and in well off the plate, and Overstreet did the right thing to take it, but the home-plate umpire did something that Alabama radio voice Chris Stewart called "disgusting."

The ump called that obvious ball three strike three. Game, regional and season over for the Crimson Tide in the worst possible way on what Stewart described as the worst possible call at the worst possible time.

Couldn't wait to get out of the car to a computer or a TV to see the pitch for myself, and Stewart was absolutely right. The call was absolutely wrong. It should've been ball three. Overstreet should've seen at least one more pitch, a 3-2 pitch with the runners on the move from first and second base.

It was an inexplicably, inexcusably bad call. Overstreet and Gaspard and the entire Alabama team deserved better than to go out that way.

(See the video below, and you make the call.)

It's true that Alabama put itself in position to watch its season end on a bad call. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that Kennesaw State, a relative newcomer to Division I in its first NCAA DI Baseball Tournament, put the Tide in this position by beating them 1-0 in the regional opener and taking a 4-2 lead into the ninth in the final.

You may have heard State's name when the bracket was released and said, "Who?" That would've been fitting since the school nickname is the Owls, but they're clearly a quality baseball team that'll have a fighting chance at Louisville in the Super Regionals.

It's also true that Alabama didn't take advantage of opportunities earlier in the game Monday, but the Crimson Tide deserved better than they got in the end.

"That's a ball; that's a flat-out ball," Gaspard said. "The ball was not called off the plate the entire day. I was very disappointed in that last call there that we didn't get another pitch to fight with."

No one's saying Alabama deserved to win, but the Tide did deserve to have one more swing at it. Instead the home-plate umpire took the bat out of their hands until next season.